Maturity In To Kill A Mockingbird

Maturity is something that not everybody has, but with the right people, it can be attained. Different people can have different influences on a certain personality. In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the character Jean Louise Finch, or Scout, is being taught many different things, and maturity is one of them. In the novel, Scout is around the right people to learn new things. The three people who have the biggest influence on Scout’s maturity are Miss Maudie, Calpurnia, and Atticus. The people that are with Scout help her become a mature woman with their actions around her. The first person that teaches Scout maturity is Miss Maudie.The morning after her house burnt down, she acts as if nothing had happened and she cares

This is a big moment for Scout because she goes outside of her little bubble of school and home. In the time that Scout goes to the church, she learns that Calpurnia doesn’t just cook, but she has another life outside of that:”That Calpurnia led a modest double life never dawned on me. The idea that she had a separate existence outside of her household was novel one, to say nothing of her having command of two languages”(Lee 167). More importantly, she realizes how different things really are in the world at that time, and starts having a real view on life. She sees the lives of the less fortunate people and starts connecting the things she learns about innocence. The fact that she has a view on life and that she’s making connections shows her growing maturity. (Concluding sentence

This is the most important influence because Atticus and Scout spend a huge quantity of their time together and Scout really looks up to Atticus. When Tom Robinson is in court, Atticus is the one to defend him. He could have said no, but he didn’t. Atticus goes against what the whole town thinks he should do. Scout asks “then why are you doin’ it?”(Lee 100). She doesn’t understand why Atticus would do something that nobody wants him to do. Atticus explains that he needs to do it because everyone deserves a chance to win and he believes it’s the right thing to do. Scout learns maturity from this because she sees that he is not willing to follow others views, but he is thinking for himself. The next way that Scout’s maturity is influenced by Atticus is right after he shoots the mad dog coming down the street. That action impresses Scout when he did that, but also surprises her. The reason that this action surprises her is because Atticus had never says anything about being good shot. She doesn’t know why he would never say anything about it when it’s such a good skill to have, but then she asks Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie said “I think maybe he put his gun down when he realized that God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things” (Lee